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Item Description

Title:

Nanjing 1937/Manila 1945: Remembrance and Reconciliation
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Author:

Kasahara, Tokushi; Nakano, Satoshi

Date:

2010-03-05

Abstract:

Reconciling Narratives of the Nanjing Massacre in Japanese and Chinese Textbooks, by Dr. Tokushi Kasahara: Differences in the ways Chinese and Japanese publics have remembered the Massacre are a major obstacle in reconciliation today. Also, historical education causes a rift in understanding the atrocities associated with this event. In his paper, Prof. Tokushi Kasahara will discuss (1) how clear the differences in those public memories actually are by giving a quick look at the history textbooks used by both Japanese and Chinese; (2) why many Japanese do not know the details of the massacre, while most history textbooks in Japanese schools refer to the Nanjing Massacre; and (3) the significance of the publication of History That Opens the Future (2005), the first piece of educational historiography in East Asia edited by authors from Japan, China, and Korea.
Battle of Manila 1945: Politics of Forgetting and Remembrance, by Dr. Satoshi Nakano (Battle of Manila: February 3 – March 3, 1945) which slaughtered approximately 100,000 civilian non-combatants by Japanese soldiers and the collateral damage caused by urban warfare, including US indiscriminate shelling, was once given considerable publicity in the Japanese War Crimes Trials (1946-1948). However, it has long been the subject of amnesia in Japan, the United States, and even in the Philippines. The 50th year's anniversary (1995) marked the quiet beginning of protest against forgetting with the erection of a small memorial in Intramuros, Manila. Will it cause another "Rape of Nanking" problem for Japanese in the near future? Prof. Satoshi Nakano will discuss a brief history of forgetting and remembrance of the battle in postwar Philippine-Japan relations, and the possibility of a more meaningful reconciliation by not forgetting it but by living with its memories. The presentation includes a film showing (about 20 minutes) of NHK documentary “Remembering the Battle of Manila” (2007).

Sponsorship:

Center for Philippine Studies & Japan Society for the Promotion of Science